The police told the Delhi High Court that technical investigation was not in their hands and some foreign agencies, as well as AIIMS, were involved in the probe and hence it was taking some time.

&nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspIndiatimes

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Wednesday denied any kind of delay in the probe into the death of Sunanda Pushkar, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s wife.

The police told the Delhi High Court that technical investigation was not in their hands and some foreign agencies, as well as AIIMS, were involved in the probe and hence it was taking some time.

The court observed that the incident happened in January 2014 and yet there has been no report from the police.

“We would like to know where you have reached,” the judge stated. “You have made things peculiar. We hear cases that are older, for us, this case is as good or bad as any other matter. We want to know what happened for three years. We are not monitoring your investigation we want to know where you stand.”

On behalf of the state, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain told the High Court that the case is heavily dependent on scientific investigation and samples have gone to AIIMS three times and officials went to the USA for lab reports and that the probe is at its fag end.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who has demanded a CBI probe into the case, said in court that if investigating agencies conclude that death was due to poison then it doesn't matter what type of poison it was. Swamy further submitted that forensic investigations by the United States' FBI and other agencies are just delaying the probe.

The police also told the court that further details of the investigation will not be given in open court or shared with Swamy.

Swamy then asked the High Court to monitor the SIT investigation into the probe into Sunanda Pushkar’s death, saying that police’s decision to "chase the poison" is a delaying tactic.

However, the High Court judge turned down Swamy’s request, stating that getting into monitoring of the investigation is a “bad habit.” The judge also stated that the manner of investigation is up to the police. “They may want to rule out different angles of poisoning as it may have ramifications. But It cannot be an unending investigation,” the court stated.

However, the judge observed that it will be unfair to everyone if the court doesn't look into it.

“But we are putting a quietus to the process. Why should anyone's name be brought up and ridiculed if there is nothing in the investigation?” the court said.

The court has asked the ASG to look into the record of investigation and the police have been instructed to show investigation record to the ASG.

After ASG Sanjay Jain examines the records and gives his opinion on the progress of the investigation, he has been asked to submit his response to the court after two weeks. The next date of hearing has been scheduled for September 21.

On July 24, the standing counsel had submitted the status report in the case of Sunanda Pushkar’s death to the Delhi High Court. In the 9-page report, accessed by Times Now, the police had stated that the cause of death is still unknown. The report mentioned that the post-mortem report cited the cause of death as ‘death by poisoning' due to excessive ingestion of Alprazolam. The report, however, did not rule out the possibility of injectable poison.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, under mysterious circumstances.

Sunanda Pushkar case: Delhi High Court unhappy with delay but won't monitor SIT probeDescription:The police told the Delhi High Court that technical investigation was not in their hands and some foreign agencies, as well as AIIMS, were involved in the probe and hence it was taking some time.Times Now